Last Chance at my Skipper stripes...

[Micksp]

Learning and mastering the DW is step by step process. First of, make your choice of platform and master it. The submarines have differences, so take one of them and start learning. Here are few links to some useful guides:

http://www.subguru.com/missions/SCHQ_TACMAN_PDF.zip

http://www.subguru.com/BluebookR20.zip

http://www.subguru.com/DW_missions/TMA.zip

http://www.tpub.com/content/combat/14308/css/14308_169.htm

http://www.haptonstahl.org/ppt/tma_files/frame.htm

http://www.subguru.com/DW_missions/FFG_Guide.pdf

http://www.subguru.com/DW_missions/P3_Operational_Manual.pdf

The last two are for FFG-7 and P3-C Orion. About subs you should master the sonar first. He is your primary sensor. Start with BB, check for any contacts and mark them. If you can hear them, they are on the surface and will be strongest. Go to NB sonar screen and try to get a classification. If you have a doubts about the contact class go to snorkel depth and raise the ESM, if ships radars are turned on you will get their classification and bearing. Also, the DEMON can help you to determine the contact category. By determining the number of blades on a contact’s propeller, listening to the sounds it emits and observing the contact’s behavior you can make an educated guess as to the category of the contact.

Use the following criteria to help categorize the selected contact:

Merchant Vessels/Tankers: Typically three or four blades; noisy; often maintains predictable course.
Warships: Typically four or five-bladed propellers; quieter, smoother sound than merchant ships; possibly unpredictable course changes.
Submarines: Five, six or seven-bladed propellers; very quiet when submerged and at low speed; unpredictable course changes.
Fishing Vessels/Trawlers/Pleasure Craft: Three- or four-bladed propellers; noisy; erratic courses and speeds, frequently stopping and starting.

Finding the submarines is much harder. The primary station where you must look for them is the NB. Switch to 300 Hz frequency and watch for the first line. They will be 50 Hz for the Russian subs and 60 Hz for USA subs. Don’t expect strong line, they are faint in most cases, so adjust your monitor. In NB you always have two contacts per target. One of them is a mirror. Maneuver left or right your sub and one of the contacts will start to move. That is the mirror and you can ignore him and track another one. Check the SSP and change your depth if necessary. You can launch UUV, which will help you to estimate the contacts range and position and also is helpful in tracking incoming torpedoes…

Here is more staff, just ask away about something concrete.

[kage]

Originally Posted by Micksp

In NB you always have two contacts per target. One of them is a mirror.

Might help not to feed misinformation.

The towed array gives mirror contacts. Narrowband has nothing to do with that.

[Chaos81]

Originally Posted by kage

The towed array gives mirror contacts.

Can you or someone else, elabarate on that? I'm still VERY new at this game as well and am trying to pick up all I can.

I think I remember reading this at one point, but can't remember where or when. Why do you get a mirror contact, and how do you tell the two apart?

[Wim Libaers]

Originally Posted by Chaos81

Can you or someone else, elabarate on that? I'm still VERY new at this game as well and am trying to pick up all I can.

I think I remember reading this at one point, but can't remember where or when. Why do you get a mirror contact, and how do you tell the two apart?

You get a mirror contact because the towed array can tell you the angle between the array and incoming sounds, but not the direction. If, for example, the angle in 50°, that could be 50° to the left or 50° to the right. Finding the right one is easy: turn, and wait for the array to stabilise on the new course. When it does so, the fake contact will move by two times that angle, the real contact will not move (well, only as much as it would due to its own speed.)

[Chaos81]

Thanks for the reply, that makes perfect sense to me. I'm off to read some of the things in this thread a bit more.

[Enigma]

That is a good pointer, cheers...

Still struggling with contacts, how to determine what im listening to, how to read the displays, etc....would be great to go on TS with someone and try it. Get a few lessons, if anyone is up to it...

We should start our own Naval academy!

Yeah .. especially TMA without pictures is impossible
I figured most things out with help of the mission editor. I edited one civilian ship in 5nm distance and I tracked it. It's all much easier when they don't shoot back

This is what im doing now. Simply setting up some targets in space, and then attempting to define one from the other, and pinpoint the positions...

[SeaQueen]

Originally Posted by Enigma

Still struggling with contacts, how to determine what im listening to, how to read the displays, etc....would be great to go on TS with someone and try it. Get a few lessons, if anyone is up to it...

How to determine what you're listening to is sometimes just a bit of guesswork. The filters might be able to narrow it down to a range of possiblities but usually the only way to know with perfect certainty is to get so close that you're endangering yourself. Usually, though, you don't need to do that if you use your head. If you're in the Norwegian Sea, for example, you can be pretty sure that you're not looking at any Chinese warships.

This is what im doing now. Simply setting up some targets in space, and then attempting to define one from the other, and pinpoint the positions...

If you have broadband on a target, you should be able to get a pretty good position on it.